By  JAPHET ALAKAM

Art and culture lovers in and around Nigeria will witness what can be described as the best of Arts as the 2016 edition and 10th anniversary of the youth empowerment programme, Life In My City Art Festival (LIMCAF) kicks off in the coal city of Enugu.  The high profile one week event which will be graced by the Governor of Enugu state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe,Agbogidi of Onitsha,  Oba Otudeko and others is scheduled to open on October 24, with exhibitions and lectures and end on October 29, with a grand finale and gala night.

This was disclosed by the Executive Director of LIMCAF, Mr Kevin Ejiofor while briefing the press on activities lined up for the festival which aims at discovering creative talents of youths and encouraging a sustainable livelihood through an art career.

Ejiofor who took the audience down memory lane recalled how the festival started in 2007, the challenges and how the initiatives  continues to discover and expose young budding artists, launching them into the mainstream said that entries for the 2016 festival finally closed on 31st July 2016 with the total number of 289 entries bringing the total number of entries since the beginning of the Festival to just over 30,000.

“Every year the highlights of the festival occur through the events lined up for the Grand Finale Week and for the 10th anniversary the following special events are lined up. The Grand Finale Exhibition will open on Monday 24th October 2016. Featuring what we normally call, ‘The Best 100 New Works by Young Artists in Nigeria’! including a special exhibition of all the major winning works from the last 9 years climaxing with the Gala and Award night on Saturday 29 October, 2016″.

He also said that there will be several side activities in between those dates including supporting exhibitions by groups and individuals from these parts who have indicated interest in mounting those side attractions at no cost to LIMCAF.

He announced that the Festival Patron His Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe (Agbogidi) will be present at the Gala and Award Night.

Continuing, he disclosed that this year’s edition with the theme: Richness Within will be special as it will be the first time, a sitting Executive Governor of Enugu State,  His Excellency, Rt. Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has accepted to be Chief Host of the Festival and Special Guest of Honour and will personally grace the occasion.

Also another significant fact, “is that the Chairman of this year’s Gala and Award Night will be the former Chairman of First Bank, and Founder and Chairman of the Honeywell Group of Companies, Chief Oba Otudeko. He is expected to be supported by a number of other very distinguished personalities and private sponsors donors whom we have specially invited to come and support LIMCAF which is at the core of it, a youth empowerment project”.

The festival was founded in 2006 by Chief Robert Orji, a philanthropist and the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Rocana Limited, with the early collaboration of Alliance Francaise and the French Embassy in Nigeria. Established in 2007 as an annual celebration of creativity featuring young talents in the Nigerian art landscape.

The Grand Finale features works of art from young people across the country, selected from over 600 works exhibited annually in 11 exhibition centres across Nigeria. It is the largest gathering of young artists, patrons, scholars, gallery owners and other stakeholders in the visual arts in Nigeria.